Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello, i have a pair of 08' cave dwelling rats (ridleyi) that seem to be doing well except for the recent incident. i was kind of worried about the humidty being too low for them. these are my first rats. they are pretty cool. i think i just started another addiction i was just recovering from my pit addiction. my pits and kings i don't really have to worry about humidity. anyway...

i bought fir bark on monday and placed in their cages. they are in 3'x2' herp cages. yesterday i looked in the males cage and saw a few mites (i believe) in one spot. dark to semi-transparent pin head sized little boogers crawling around.it might have been on a spot of poo. kinda hard to tell on the dark colored bark. i only saw about 10 and just in that one spot. i know they can be an big problem. i threw away all the bark and washed cages with soap, water, and bleach. i never really dealt with them except wc critters that i acclimated when i was a kid. i am hoping and praying that i got them all. i am continuing to keep a close eye on all my critters. any advice on nuking them or think i might have got them?

any advice on using a higher humidity substrate the hopefully won't come infested with mites and looks somewhat asthetically pleasing? anyone else dealt with this? any advice? thanks.....

jonathan

For mite PREVENTION use this Proventamite stuff:

http://www.beanfarm.com/store/agora.cgi?cart_id=2491098.12343&product=Health_Care&user4=Mite Control&xm=on

As for getting rid of the infection (if you really have one) I'll let others advise you. I've never had to deal with it.

Regular use of the proventamite spray in cages and snake room will prevent future infestations though.
-----
Thane

thanks for the feedback. i didn't even know they had preventative stuff for mites. i will definately check into it. anyone else have experience with this product?

i have not seen any other signs than those few that were in the one cage. hopefully, if that's what they were, they are gone and stay gone. i'm just a small time hobbyist and take pride in my critters. i try to keep them as healthy as possible. i sure don't want any parisites if i can avoid it. that was a scare for me. take care...

jonathan

Mites differ in the animals that they infest. You might have one or two mites on the substrate, but that doesn't mean they are snake mites.

I have used Nix to rid my snakes of mites and Prevent-a-Mite to rid them from the tanks. Nix is safe on baby snakes. I am not sure I would like to add baby snakes to a tank that had been sprayed with Prevent-a-mite in the last few days.

Do a Google search on snake mites. There is a lot of information out there.

Good luck,

Rick

will do, thanks. i think they might have been just in the substrate. i haven't seen any on him and it's been several days. i will do some more research though.

jonathan

I agree, if they were snake mites and you saw some in the substrate, you almost certainly would have seen some on the snake by now. Generally if they are in the substrate, they are on the snake.
-----
Matt Kauffman